Some control panels allow shell (console) access to the underlying OS through a Java applet, requiring that the client-side computer use Java Virtual Machine software. Other control panels allow direct access using telnet or secure shell (SSH).

^"Aegir is split across a number of sub-projects: hostmaster (install profile), hosting (drupal module) and provision (drush extension) being the most important" user ergonlogic, IRC Freenode#aegir, 07 March 2016. See also their github page.